Has the web / social media / technology alleviated some of the stresses you were experiencing earlier on?

Again, I could probably say a lot about this topic but I’ll try to keep it brief. When I think of music and the Internet I immediately think about Pandora and Spotify and all the other music-streaming sites such as these.

Yes, you can now reach every corner of the earth with your music but it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re more successful just because you’re music is playing on the Internet in India or Iceland at any given moment.

I think it’s kind of cool actually to know that’s happening for us but the truth is that we’re still trying to make inroads right here in our own home state of Utah. We can get a radio station in Tokyo or Melbourne to play our music but I don’t think it’s realistic to think that has any more value that being played on the station(s) in your own hometown. Isn’t that where it really needs to start?

We’re still working on that and trying to come to grips with what all of it means. There’s been a lot of grumbling recently about these music-streaming services and whether or not they are actually helping musicians and songwriters at all. I don’t really want to delve too deeply into that issue that but I think some people are starting to say “Hey… the experiment time is over and that whole thing about discovery of new bands doesn’t really seem to be translating out to anything substantial.”

The “discovery” of the new music and/or the new bands might actually be happening but if the music is always there and it’s streaming on the site then where exactly is the motivation for the listener to go out and actually support the band thru purchase of their material?

We’re in a difficult time right now for artists who are trying to support themselves AND create quality music that is recorded well and promoted properly. Studios, radio promoters and publicity agents are extremely expensive and they get their money up-front. They don’t take payments of 0.0077 cents at a time, if you know what I mean.

Back to the music. What did you listen to growing up? What do you listen to now? Have your tastes changed?

The first albums I inherited were the ones I pilfered from my father’s collection. The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, Joan Baez, and other stuff from the 1960’s. It was from these records that I gained an appreciation for quality song-writing.

Later I gravitated towards progressive rock, especially Rush, and I would attempt to learn those very difficult guitar and bass parts from LP records like Moving Pictures and Permanent Waves. After I realized I would never be able to play like that I went into a phase where all I listened to was The Smiths and The Sundays.

My tastes haven’t really changed that much over the years. I have always hated Top 40 pop music and I always will. I’m not into dance music and I tend to gravitate towards great lyricists like Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison and Neil Young. Juliet, on the other hand, was raised to appreciate Beethoven and Bach and she also owned a copy of “Disco Duck” on 45 rpm.